Independent app store GetJar yesterday announced hitting more than 100 million downloads of the Facebook app it offers across multiple handsets and mobile platforms. That figure says as much about GetJar's expansion as about Facebook's growth on mobile devices.

It looks like Android may prove as formidable a rival to Apple in the tablet market as in smartphones. Samsung has sold 600,000 Galaxy Tab units in its first month of availability, according to a report in The Korea Herald picked up by BGR. That indicates a strong start for the Android-based tablet, which is now offered in more than 30 countries in North America, Europe and Asia.

With the expected arrival of the Verizon iPhone in 2011 drawing ever closer, speculation about how well the long-awaited device will impact AT&T and other phone rivals is sure to grow. A new survey from market research firm ChangeWave asked non-AT&T respondents whether they'd have still purchased their new smart phone if the iPhone had been available from their wireless provider at the time. A whopping one in three said they would have gotten the iPhone instead, suggesting Verizon can expect a sales boom by adding the device to its lineup.

Fragmentation has long been one of the terms synonymous with mobile advertising. To help reduce the barriers to mobile ad buying, a trio of companies -- The Weather Channel, Crisp Wireless and Tringapps -- earlier this year formed the Open Rich Media Mobile Advertising initiative. The group's aim is to streamline the process of serving ads in mobile applications to bolster ad spending. To that end, ORMMA today introduced an open standard and rich-media ad specifications for publishers that want to run campaigns within apps across all devices and platforms.

Things are awfully quiet on the Windows Phones 7 sales front to date. Typically, first week or weekend sales estimates for much-hyped new smartphones ripple through the tech blogosphere, giving an early glimpse into consumer demand for a device after months of pre-release coverage and speculation. But unless I just haven't noticed, that hasn't been the case with the first batch of WP7 devices from AT&T and T-Mobile that hit stores Nov. 8. Gizmodo? Engadget? BGR? Are you out there?

Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker helped stoke the mobile hype machine last year with her 424-page report predicting more people would be connected to the Web via mobile devices than PCs in five years. The 2010 edition of her annual chart-choked report on Internet trends, unveiled today at the Web 2.0 summit, should keep enthusiasm for all things mobile running high.

No, there's not a "g" missing from the last word in the above headline. Reports surfacing late last week raised the unlikely prospect of Verizon Wireless and Microsoft bringing back the ill-fated Kin device in time for the holidays. The social networking-centric phones aimed at young hipsters were on the market for less than two months before getting the kibosh from Microsoft because of anemic sales. So a little tinsel and seasonal spirit will breathe new life into the handset line?

First week sales figures for highly anticipated new smartphones have become a blogosphere benchmark for gauging whether devices are living up to pre-release hype. So far, sales figures for the first batch of Windows Phone 7 smartphones from AT&T and T-Mobile have been scarce, though numbers could start leaking out over the weekend or by Monday.

During Facebook's press conference last week rolling out new mobile initiatives, CEO Mark Zuckerberg caused a minor stir when he asserted the iPad wasn't a mobile device. The episode highlighted the debate around whether the iPad and other tablets are more like smartphones and other mobile devices, or more like a laptop or PC.

Is the iPhone 4 the Ming vase of smartphones? A new study by third-party warranty provider SquareTrade concludes that the latest version of the signature Apple device is the most reliable smartphone but also the most fragile. Out of 50,000 phones analyzed in the study, the iPhone 4 had the lowest non-accident malfunction rate, with just 2.1% of owners projected to have a problem in the first 12 months. But the iPhone 4 was projected to have the highest accidental damage rate after a year, at 13.8%. It had a higher damage rate than other smartphones from being dropped, in …